The ability to reserve home resorts is not in question. The ability, long-term, to trade via SOs, is the issue. If more and more opt not to use SOs and use DPs instead then the available units for SOs will diminish and over time encourage owners to do something else with their weeks, such as using them directly, renting, or enrolling their weeks into the DP program. And if you use DPs to trade then it is a huge devaluation over the current trading ability. This is a major change to our ownership, even if it will not impact us for some years.
Those suggesting SOs will continue to be a viable long-term solution are ignoring the implied concern of a naturally limited inventory system.
It is quite interesting that some people are advocating the belief that this is anything but a devaluation, even if it will not impact us immediately. The program we bought into is changing for the worse, and the only way it will remain similar (or improve) for individuals is if you cough up another significant investment.
First, I don't get all the doom and gloom. For every owner that opts not to use SOs, there is one less owner competing for whatever weeks are available via SOs. This concern only holds water if you believe somehow that some weeks are more valuable than others and there's a devaluation because the more valuable weeks are more likely to opt out of SOs. Otherwise, as regards the SO program, it's a one for one exchange - for every week that is not traded via SOs, there's a week that is not competing for SO reservations. In addition, unless you bought in the last 24-36 months, there's been a measurable increase in the overall inventory in the SO world via additions of the Cabo/Kauai/Westin Cancun properties.
Second, your whole premise is based on the assumption that we all had/have some "right" to what weeks stayed within the SO system and which didn't. If Interval came along and said they'd offer triple deposit credit for Westin Hawaii weeks and only single for Kierland weeks...thereby enticing Westin Hawaii owners not to elect SOs, would there be all this doom and gloom about how the program we bought into was changing? MVC is not FORCING anyone to participate in the DP program - if some choose to, there clearly is value to some there.
Finally, the statement that this is "anything but a devaluation" comes only from the perspective of someone who has been able to "maximize" value of SO trades. For every Platinum SDO owner (eligible to participate in the SO program) that was able to trade their week for a week at WKORV, there was a WKORV owner not using their week or trading for something else. That WKORV owner may see more value in trading via the DP program. Hell, if I was a WKORV owner that liked to travel in what the DP program has defined as the shoulder or off seasons, I could elect points for my week and trade back in for 8 or 9 nights at my home resort. Point is, the statement only holds water for those for whom the SO system held good value - just because the SO system was simple, straightforward and assigned the same number of points to a Platinum SDO week as deeded week 52 WKORV week, doesn't mean it was better or more valuable overall.
